Is it possible to mount a veracrypt volume from read-only media?

Open source disk encryption with strong security for the Paranoid

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Is it possible to mount a veracrypt volume from read-only media?

Forum: Technical Topics

Created: 2019-03-27

Updated: 2025-04-10

Ian - 2019-03-27

I have a drive that should never be written to. As such I'm using a device that prevents writes to external usb devices. (Tablaeu Forensic USB 3.0 Bridge)

The entire drive is encrypted (no partitions).

When I attempt to mount the volume, even with "Mount volume as read-only" enabled, I am given this error:

device-mapper: reload ioctl on veracrypt1 failed: Read-only file system
Command failed

I know this -- I WANT this -- is there no way to mount a veracrypt volume without writing to it?

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
VeraCrypt 1.23

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Ian - 2019-05-03

Ping -- nobody? VeraCrypt requires write access even when read-only mounting doesn't seem strange to anyone else? I'm just trying to determine if this is a bug -- or limitation with linux, or if this is a design thing. Do the developers visit this forum?

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Dylan The Tinkerer - 2025-04-10

Hi,
Yes, disable crypto service from the GUI:
Settings/Preferences/System Integration

And click on: Do not use kernel cryptographic services

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